Before his incarceration. Mr. Penson had been actively seeking to emigrate to Israel. Not only was he denied permission. but his desire to emigrate seems to have been the major reason for his trial and confinement. like so many of the other defendants in the tragic 1970 hijacking trial in Leningrad. Boris Pensons father died recently. after serving 2 terms in a labor camp. his mother is now seriously ill. When I wrote to Ambassador Dobrynin. I urged his sympathetic attention to the case of Boris Penson. yet I did not even receive an acknowledgment of my letter. The case of Boris Penson is only one of several hundred that even reaches the ears of the Western world. The New York Times reported last week that there are nearly 600 U.S. emigrants in the Soviet Union who cannot obtain permission to return to the United States either on grounds of their American citizenship or to join American relatives. Despite the Soviet Unions professed spirit of cooperation with the United States. they have been unwilling to ease their discriminatory emigration policies and the harassment of Soviet Jews in particular continues undaunted. Mr. Speaker. at this point in the REcORD I would like to bring to the attention of my colleagues an appeal addressed to the U.S.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration emigrants